Kylie Jenner becomes world's youngest 'Self Made' billionaire

Kylie Jenner on March 5 was named the youngest self-made billionaire of all time by Forbes magazine, thanks to the booming cosmetics company she founded three years ago.

Jenner, 21, the half-sister of reality television stars Kim, Khloe and Kourtney Kardashian, made it onto the annual Forbes list of billionaires after debuting her Kylie Cosmetics online in 2015 with $29 lip kits containing matching lipstick and lip liner.

Forbes said she was both the world's youngest billionaire and also the youngest self-made billionaire ever.

The term self-made has quite obviously riled a few people on social media but Forbes has given an explanation over it.

Forbes explained about the whole controversy in an online report. The magazine noted, to be clear, Forbes defines "self-made" as someone who built a company or established a fortune on her own, rather than inheriting some or all of it. As long as the list member didn't inherit a business or money, she is labeled self-made. But the term is very broad, and does not adequately reflect how far some people have come and, relatively speaking, how much easier others have had it.

Not just that Forbes further explained its ranking system. The Forbes report noted, "To address this issue and provide more clarity, Forbes came up with a scoring system in 2014 that ranked members of the Forbes 400 list of richest Americans on a scale of 1 to 10 in terms of how self-made they were. Based on that scale, someone who inherited everything scores a 1, while someone who not only grew up poor but also experienced substantial hardships - like Oprah Winfrey - scores a 10. Kylie Jenner, who comes from a wealthy family and who has leveraged her fame to her advantage, ranks a 7."

On their billionaires list, Forbes distinguishes between those who inherited much of their wealth and those who made their fortunes on their own. Kylie would be in 2,057th place whether she was self-made or inherited.

Last year, Kylie Cosmetics did an estimated $360 million in sales, according to Forbes. Jenner, who has a one year-old daughter, owns 100 percent of the company.

She also makes money from endorsements and appearances on cable TV's "Keeping Up with the Kardashians," and was ranked at number 2,057 on the Forbes 2019 list.

Kylie Cosmetics last year signed a deal with Ulta Beauty Inc to put her products in all of the retailer's 1,163 US stores.
Forbes put 2,153 billionaires on its 2019 list, down from 2,208 in 2018, and said their total combined net worth was $8.7 trillion, down from $9.1 trillion in 2018.

The richest person in the world remained Amazon.com Inc Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos, whose net worth increased to $131 billion from $112 billion in 2018, according to Forbes.

Microsoft Corp co-founder Bill Gates remained in the No. 2 position with an estimated fortune of $96.5 billion, up from $90 billion last year.

Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg dropped three places to No. 8, as his fortune fell by $8.7 billion to $62.3 billion.